Commodity Online NEW DELHI: The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN has said that people living in the Mediterranean area, the 16 countries that surround the Mediterranean Sea, are increasingly shunning their traditional diet.
According to a report released by the United Nations, what is eaten now by the people who live around the Mediterranean is too fat, too salty and too sweet, says Josef Schmidhuber, senior economist of FAO.
Experts said the original Mediterranean diet can stave off arthritis, obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Food experts has listed the benefits of eating a diet low in fat, high in fiber, and made up mostly of fruit and vegetables, doused with hearty spoonfuls of extra-virgin olive oil.
However, while some people in the world have been convinced by the evidence, people living in the Mediterranean area are shunning their traditional diet.
Growing affluence in the southern European, North African and Near East regions has greatly deteriorated people’s eating habits. More money has meant people have increased meat and fats in their diet, which was traditionally light on animal proteins.
Daily intake of calories in the 15 European nations increased about 20 per cent over 40 years to 2002 — from 2960 kcal to 3340 kcal — but the southern countries such as Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Cyprus and Malta which started out poorer upped their calorie count by 30 per cent in this same period.
